The Bear River Massacre was a United States military attack that killed an estimated 250 to 493 children, women, and men at a Shoshone winter encampment on January 29, 1863. Some sources describe it as the largest mass murder of Native Americans by the US military and the largest single episode of genocide in US history. It took place in present-day Franklin County, Idaho near the present-day city of Preston on January 29, 1863. After years of skirmishes and food raids on farms and ranches, and settlers displacing Shoshone from their ancestral lands, the United States Army attacked a large Shoshone community at the confluence of the Bear River and Battle Creek in what was then southeastern Washington Territory.
Colonel Patrick Edward Connor led a detachment of California Volunteers as part of the Bear River Expedition against Shoshone chief Bear Hunter. Around 250 to 400 Northern Shoshone children and adults were killed near their homes, and 21 US soldiers died. The event is also known as the Engagement on the Bear River, the Battle of Bear River, and the Massacre at Boa Ogoi.
Early history and causes
Cache Valley, originally called Seuhubeogoi (Shoshone for "Willow Valley"), was the traditional hunting ground for the Northwestern Shoshone. They gathered grain and grass seeds there, fished for trout, and hunted small game such as ground squirrel and woodchuck, and large game including bison, deer, and elk. This mountain valley had attracted fur trappers such as Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith, who visited the region. It was named Cache Valley for the trappers' practice of leaving stores of furs and goods (i.e., a cache) in the valley as a base for hunting in the surrounding mountain ranges.
So impressed were the trappers by the region that they recommended to Brigham Young that he consider the valley as a location for his settlement of Mormon pioneers. Instead, Young chose Salt Lake Valley, but Mormon settlers eventually moved to Cache Valley as well. As early as July 31, 1847, a 20-man delegation of Shoshone met with the Mormons to discuss their land claims in northern Utah. All of this was over the backdrop of the continent-spanning American Indian Wars and the White settlers' American imperialist views on Manifest destiny, and their resulting genocide of US Native Americans.
Immigrant pressures causing Shoshone starvation
The establishment of the California and Oregon Trails, as well as the founding of Salt Lake City in 1847, brought the Shoshone people into regular contact with white colonists moving westward. By 1856, European Americans had established their first permanent settlements and farms in Cache Valley, starting at Wellsville, Utah, and gradually moving northward.
Brigham Young declared the policy that Mormon settlers should establish friendly relations with the surrounding American Indian tribes. He encouraged their helping to "feed them rather than fight them". Despite the policy, the settlers were consuming significant food resources and taking over areas that pushed the Shoshone increasingly into areas of marginal food production. David H. Burr, Surveyor General of the Territory of Utah, wrote in 1856 that the local Shoshone Indians reported that the Mormons used so much of the Cache Valley's resources that the once abundant game no longer appeared. Foraging and hunting by settlers traveling on the western migration trails took additional food sources away from the Shoshone. As early as 1859, Jacob Forney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory of Utah, recognized the impact of migrants, writing, "The Indians...have become impoverished by the introduction of a white population". He recommended that an Indian Reservation be established in Cache Valley to protect essential resources for the Shoshone. His superiors at the United States Department of the Interior did not act on his proposal. Desperate and starving, the Shoshone attacked farms and cattle ranches, not just for revenge but for survival.
In the early spring of 1862, James Duane Doty, Utah's Territorial Superintendent of Indian Affairs, spent four days in Cache Valley and reported: "The Indians have been in great numbers, in a starving and destitute condition. No provisions having been made for them, either as to clothing or provisions by my predecessors... The Indians condition was such-with the prospect that they would rob mail stations to sustain life." Doty purchased supplies of food and slowly doled it out. He suggested furnishing the Shoshone with livestock to enable them to become herders instead of beggars.
On July 28, 1862, John White discovered gold on the Grasshopper Creek in the southwestern Montana mountains. Soon, miners created a migration and supply trail right through the middle of Cache Valley, between this mining camp and Salt Lake City. The latter was the nearest significant trading source of goods and food in the area.
Outbreak of the Civil War
When the American Civil War began in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln was concerned that California, which had just recently become a state, would be cut off from the rest of the Union. He ordered several regiments to be raised from the population of California to help protect mail routes and the communications lines of the West. Neither Lincoln nor the U.S. War Department quite trusted the Mormons of the Utah Territory to remain loyal to the Union, despite their leader Young's telegrams and assurances. The Utah War and Mountain Meadows massacre were still fresh in the minds of military planners. They worried that the Mormons' substantial militia might answer only to Young and not the federal government.
Col. Patrick Edward Connor was put in command of the 3rd California Volunteer Infantry Regiment and ordered to move his men to Utah, to protect the Overland Mail Route and keep peace in the region. Upon arriving in Utah, he established Camp Douglas (adjacent to the current location of the University of Utah) as the primary base of operations for his unit. It was within a few miles of the Mormon Temple construction site and downtown Great Salt Lake City.
Warnings and conflicts with Cache Valley settlers
Several incidents in the summer and fall of 1862 led to the battle between Bear Hunter and Col. Connor. These incidents were related to broad struggles between indigenous peoples and European-American settlers over almost the entire United States west of the Mississippi River. The attention of most of the nation's population was focused on the Civil War in the eastern states. Some historians have overlooked these incidents because they occurred near the ill-defined boundary of two different territories: those of Washington and Utah. While the incidents took place in proximity, the administrative centers dealing with them were more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) apart, so it was difficult to integrate reports. For example, for years, residents and officials believed Franklin and the area of conflict was part of the Utah Territory. Residents of Franklin sent elected representatives to the Utah Territorial Legislature; they were part of the politics of Cache County, Utah, until 1872 when a surveying team determined the community was in Idaho territory.
Pugweenee
Pugweenee was a Shoshone Native American living in Summit Creek (now Smithfield). He was accused of stealing a horse from a resident of Richmond. He was arrested by Thomas Winn, George Barber, and Sylvanus Collett and held at John G. Smith's home - one of the few structures built at the time (July 23, 1860). Within several hours some young Shoshone Native Americans came to free him. The exchange became heated and Pugweenee made a dash for freedom. Gunshots were fired from both sides killing Pugweenee and injuring the guard Samuel Cousins. Settlers started assembling after hearing the gunshots. The Natives fled for cover in the brush along the Summit Creek and made their way toward today's Main Street. They came upon a group from Franklin, Idaho traveling down to the Pioneer Day celebration in Weber County. The group consisted of James Reed and the families of Arthur Cowan and Thomas Slater. The Natives fired on them killing Reed and injuring Cowan. The Natives continued up the South side of the creek, crossed near the mouth of today's James Mack Park (where the Shoshone's camp was at the time) and pressed up the hill onto today's Upper Canyon Road. Two brothers, Ira and Solyman Merrill, were driving their wagon down the canyon after gathering willows to make a bowery for the Pioneer Day celebration that would take place the following day. The Natives fired on the two, killing Ira and injuring Solyman. The pursuing settlers followed the Natives as far as Indian Canyon before loosing them. When the settlers returned they dispatched to Logan with the news of the skirmish and 25 mounted minute men hurried to the area for reinforcements.
Following the incident the settlers decided to bring their wagons close together fort style to protect against future attacks from Natives. Men and boys took turns standing guard at night and while settlers work their fields. The incident was reported a few days later in a Salt Lake newspaper, The Mountaineer on July 28, 1860. An eye witness account by Margaret Sant was published in the Smithfield Sentinel on the 66th anniversary of the incident July 23, 1926.
Massacre near Fort Hall
During the summer of 1859, a settler company of about 19 people from Michigan was traveling on the Oregon Trail near Fort Hall when they were attacked at night by people they assumed were local Shoshone. Several members of the company were killed by gunfire. The survivors took refuge along the Portneuf River, where they hid among the bullrushes and willow trees. Three days later, Lieutenant Livingston of Fort Walla Walla, leading a company of dragoons, met the survivors. He investigated the incident and documented what he called the brutality of the attack. According to the Deseret News of September 21, 1859, a detachment of Lieutenant Livingston's dragoons found five bodies at the scene of the massacre were mangled. A girl of only five years old had her ears cut off, her eyes gouged out, both legs amputated at the knees, and by all appearances, was made to walk on her stumps.
Reuben Van Ornum and the Battle of Providence
On September 9, 1860, Elijah Utter was leading migrants on the Oregon trail when they were attacked by a group of presumably Bannock and Boise Shoshone. Despite settlers' attempts to appease the Native Americans, the Indians killed nearly the entire migrant party and drove off their livestock. Alexis Van Ornum, his family, and about ten others hid in some nearby brush, only to be discovered and killed. Their bodies were discovered by a company of U.S. soldiers led by Captain Frederick T. Dent. Lieutenant Marcus A. Reno came across the mutilated bodies of six of the Van Ornums. The survivors reported that the attacking warriors took four Van Ornum children captive. As a direct result of this attack, the Army established a military fort near the present location of Boise, Idaho, along the migrant trail. Colonel George Wright requested $150,000 to establish a military post to sustain five troop companies.
Zachias Van Ornum, Alexis' brother, heard from a relative on the Oregon Trail that a small white boy of his missing nephew Reuben's age was being held by a group of Northwestern Shoshone, likely to be in Cache Valley. Van Ornum gathered a small group of friends and traveled to Salt Lake City to get help from the territorial government. There, he visited Col. Connor at Fort Douglas and asked for help to regain his nephew. Col. Connor agreed and sent a detachment of cavalry under the command of Major Edward McGarry to Cache Valley to rendezvous with Van Ornum near the town of Providence, Utah. Van Ornum located a small group of Shoshone warriors being led by Chief Bear Hunter. He and McGarry's men followed the Shoshone as they retreated to nearby Providence Canyon. After the Indians opened fire, McGarry gave the order "to commence firing and to kill every Indian they could see." A skirmish between the Shoshone and the U.S. Army lasted about two hours after the Shoshone established a defensible position in the canyon. Finally, Chief Bear Hunter signaled surrender by climbing a foothill and waving a flag of truce.